The Town (2010)

This is the not fucking around crew so get me something that looks like a print because this not fucking around thing is about to go both ways.

— FBI S.A. Adam Frawley

Oh, my goodness. You guys! It sucked being away from the blog and I missed you all. I’m not totally back, but I wanted to give you something to tide you over. Last weekend I went to movies to watch Ben Affleck’s latest directorial effort, The Town. Let me just say that I loathe this title. It’s so plain and simple. Feelings aside, I wanted to see this film because I was put off by Affleck’s first film, Gone Baby Gone. I wondered what his second effort would yield. All I can say is don’t  watch the threaterical trailer it would spoil it for you.

Going back to his roots, Affleck’s latest tells the story about the bank robbery capital of the world, a Irish majority suburb of Boston called Charlestown. Affleck plays Doug MacRay, the leader of a group of bank robbers who have honed their skills to pull off the perfect heist. Along for the ride is the loose cannon of group, Jem Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), the tech guy, Desmond Elden (Owen Burke) and the getaway driver, Gloansy Magloan (Slaine).

During one of the group’s robberies, Doug forces to the bank manager, Claire (Rebeeca Hall) to open up the bank vault. She is clearly frazzled because she has a semi-automatic gun pointed at her with a bunch of guys in scary Rastafarian-like masks. Doug almost takes pity on her and tells her to calm herself and she would not get hurt. When she opens the vault, things go awry when somebody is trying to open the front doors, and Jem’s short fuse cause craziness. Jem butts the assistant manager with his gun and takes Claire as a hostage.

Eventually, Jem lets Claire go not without taking her driver’s license, but Jem thinks that Claire will be liability and needs to be taken out, because she lives in their neighborhood and might go the cops. Doug doesn’t want that to happen, so he volunteers to track her town, because he has an inexplicable pull towards Claire. He lies to Jem that he couldn’t find her and starts to have a relationship with her.

Meanwhile, the FBI S.A. Adam Frawley (Jon Hamm) and his partner, Dino Ciampa (Titus Welliver) are quick on the robbers trail and they would do anything to bring these guys down. Things gets complicated when Doug and Claire’s relationship is threatening the bonds of the brotherhood.

After a month and half of not watching a movie, I was feening for it like crack. Even though, I’ve never tried it. Don’t try it, kiddies out there. I had the choice  to see this, Easy A or try to see Scott Pilgrim vs The World. I think I might have picked the wrong film. I’m not saying that this movie is bad. It was fine. The first third of movie was boring as all get out. I was checking my watch a couple of times. Having a movie about the bad guys doesn’t work when you have Ben Affleck robbing banks for their boss, Fergie the Florist (Pete Postlethwaite)  and he is trying to get into Rebecca Hall’s pants. It didn’t gel with me.

I did enjoy the action elements of the film with the standoffs at the banks, the shootouts and the comic touches in the film, but the romance part of the film killed the movie for me. Besides that the ending of the movie is completely predictable that I knew who was going to survive and who wasn’t.

Judgment: This makes me want to revisit Gone Baby Gone again.

Rating: **1/2

A Single Man (2009)

Renounced fashion designer that revitalized the Gucci brand name, Tom Ford is parlaying his expertise to the big screen with his feature film debut, A Single Man based on the novel of same name by Christopher Ishwerwood.  I have been looking forward for this movie when the film received glowing reviews when it was screened at the Toronto Film Festival. The Weinstein Company picked it up and I eagerly anticipated this movie for when it came out. I went to the first matinee screening today. This movie is a sight to behold that will connect with anybody that has ever lost love.

Colin Firth gives a masterfully understated performance as George Falconer, an aging English professor that is contemplating suicide. He lives a solitary existence when his partner of sixteen years, Jim (Matthew Goode) suddenly died of car crash eight months earlier. Without the love of his life there with him, George’s life is filled with uncomfortable silences.

Friday, November 30, 1962 is the day that we focus on. George wakes up to put on his perfectly tailored suit to create the façade of a normal man in society. It is like his suit of armor. He longingly stares out in space at the moments of his former life with Jim that comes in flashbacks. The thought of death in his mind lingers as he looks at his neighbors, the Strucks (Teddy Sears, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ryan Simpkins, Paul Butler, Aaron Sanders) living the “American dream.”

George’s childhood friend/next-door neighbor from London, Charley (Julianne Moore) constantly bothers him with her ringing him before he goes to work. She is drunk, which is typical for her. As George goes about his day, he starts to get his affairs in order when he does the deed later on that night.

In his class, he speaks to his students about fear. The setting takes places during the Cuban Missile Crisis where some Americans like George’s colleague, Grant (Lee Pace) fears the Russians are coming. He makes a case that fear is everywhere. Being a gay man in the 60s, you have be discreet. Be careful about being found out.

After class, one of his wide-eyed students approaches George, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult) with his fuzzy white sweater and his deep blue eyes. He asks his professor about how he taught the lesson. George is little annoyed the probing questions that Kenny is asking.

George’s ultimate goal is to have his affairs in order. That everyone in his life is cared for before he dies.

First of all, this movie is simply gorgeous with the stylized hues of the blacks and whites. The film felt authentic with the drab colors saturating the screen. The costumes were spectacular and it makes you wonder how Charley would fix herself flawlessly when she is half in the bag. The biggest highlight of the film is the score by Abel Korzeniowski. The way the music swells and interweaves in and out of the scenes were so good.

Some people would be put off by the overt homosexuality displayed in the movie. You should know what you are getting before putting your ten dollars down. I heard about bunch of heavy sighs with the long bouts of silence. It’s supposed to make you uncomfortable, to make you feel like George who no longer wants to exist in the world.

I did have a problem with the extreme close-ups of lips, eyes, hair, or flowers. I understand that when someone is on the brink that they would see the world in different way, but it was a little bit of overkill. Nicholas Hoult’s performance was a bit annoying. Researching this movie, he was cast a couple of days before the movie was supposed to start. It shows. I thought that he was wooden. I loved him in About a Boy, but this was not his best work.

Judgment: This movie will give you an eye-gasm. It’s so beautiful.

Rating: ****1/2

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

I heard about the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still about a year and half ago from a former co-worker of mine was a fellow cinephile. On a break from work, he was talking about a movie that he loved that was the original 1951 movie.

He was searching on imdb about the film and realized that they were remaking the movie for a December 2008 release. We read the synopsis that it would be changed from the nuclear program from the original to the environmental slant in this version.

I thought it would be a cool modern take on what it happening to Earth and having this alien come to Earth and say you are wrong. They want to right the wrongs of the human race and eliminate them in order to let the Earth survives. I knew that it would come off preachy, like “WALL-E”. I knew that going in.

Updated to modern times, Jennifer Connelly plays Helen Benson, an astrobiologist. Whatever that is. She is recruited with other scienists to find out this oval object that lands in Central Park. Keanu plays Klaatu, the alien emerging from the object. There is also Gort, the robot that protects Klaatu from any harm. Yada yada yada.

I was utterly disappointed with this movie. Nothing happens to almost the end of the movie. It was mind-numbing. Jaden Smith playing Helen’s step-son. He was so annoying, such a brat. I have to question why the screenwriter, David Scarpa, put him in there.

Avoid this movie at all costs.

My rating: * 1/2 stars.